Innovation and Entrepreneurship Specialization

This advanced workshop explores current techniques in mass market and Internet market research, with an emphasis on state of the art methods and issues facing practitioners. The course explores the social psychology of creating and supplying demand for products and services, by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods in both traditional retail and business distribution channels as well as through the Internet. Topics include market segmentation, product feature targeting, packaging, pricing, bundling, and placement, as well as advertising through direct mail, email, Internet, electronic mass media, and print media.

This course focuses on developing an organization design that encourages innovation and enhances the success of entrepreneurial ventures. Various organization design techniques are discussed as a foundation, followed by application to various scenarios and business issues.

This course focuses on the development of an organizational culture that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship. Principles of organizational culture are discussed as a foundation, as well as factors that increase innovation and entrepreneurship. Levers for driving culture and techniques of culture change will also be demonstrated. Students will develop an idea and business plan for an innovative venture within a corporation/agency or a new entrepreneurial venture. Students will demonstrate application of the program content in the creation of a business plan.

Students in this course will learn the principles of managing for creativity and agility. This will include the role of management in encouraging and inhibiting creativity, as well as specific management techniques for managing staff in creative jobs. Specific management techniques will be compared and contrasted for their potential application to innovation and entrepreneurship. This seminar-based course will focus on the ability of organizations to rapidly respond to changing market conditions and emerging opportunities. Topics such as disruptive innovation, alternative organization models, the extended enterprise, and others will be discussed, with a focus on the latest thinking in this area.

This course will focus on the emerging practice of innovation and entrepreneurship around the globe, with a particular focus on developing and lesser-developed countries. As countries such as India and China emerge as sources of innovation and entrepreneurship, it presents new challenges for countries that have traditionally held positions of economic leadership – how can innovators and entrepreneurs capitalize on this trend and counter these threats? Innovation and micro-enterprise in lesser-developed countries and the opportunities that it presents will also be discussed.

The role that media forms like “social media” (or computer-mediated social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn) play in large companies and organizations has become increasingly important for the analysis and leadership of organizations. In this course, students will develop a theoretical basis in, and begin to differentiate among, emerging media and internet technologies, the ethical questions surrounding social media, personal identity and the workplace, and the role that the internet, blogs and email have on group decision-making and the effectiveness of leaders. Students will take their knowledge of how social media are used for promotion and public relations, and how content communities and virtual social worlds are utilized in organizations, and apply it to creating plans for transforming organizations.